About time
by IRavenAgain
Summary: After 5 years off being Miraculous wielders, Marinette and Chat Noir have developed a strong friendship still unaware of their other identities. A little Marichat one-shot with some mild season 3 spoilers.


**After 5 years off being Miraculous wielders, Marinette and Chat Noir have developed a strong friendship still unaware of their other identities. A little Marichat one-shot with some mild season 3 spoilers.**

* * *

Marinette leaned on the rail of her rooftop, watching Notre Dame with a sigh. It was already dark and the city sparkled. Her hair was down and she was already in her tank top and pajama bottoms. She would be starting college in a couple of months and had a lot on her mind.

"Hello Princess." Chat noir said as he landed behind her as softly as his namesake would.

"Hi Kitty." Marinette said happily as she turned to see the leather cladded hero, taking a seat in one of the now two chairs around her little table, and lifting the lid on a tray that contained two dinner plates.

"This smells great." He said rubbing his hands together and taking a plate, as Marinette took the seat next to him and pulled a plate towards her as well. Over the last couple of years Chat had made it a habit of having dinner at Marinette's 3 days a week during his patrolling. She would wait for him and they would sit and have dinner together. They'd just talk and talk until it got late, she would then turn in for the night and he would go about his way. They still didn't know each others identity but, Marinette now considered Chat her best friend right after Alya. She would talk about school things, or about her relationship with Luka, her hopes and professional aspirations. He would ask her for advice about his girlfriend, talk about mostly the mundane things of his day never being too specific, as well as dreams and aspiration he would never otherwise talk to anyone about as Adrien.

"I hope it's not too cold, you're a bit late." Marinette said as she took a bite.

"Sorry Princess, I had a previous engagement to attend to." Chat wasn't planning on mentioning that involved trying to break up with Kagami.

"That's ok Kitty, you don't have to explain anything to me, it's not like we're married." Marinette liked letting him be as secretive as he needed to, it was something she wished she still had for herself.

"Although if you keep feeding me this well I may have to ask your father for your hand in marriage." Chat hungrily devoured everything on his plate.

"Silly Kitty." Marinette found him terribly endearing when he ate like this.

"You sure your parents don't mind me being here almost every other night?" Chat said almost finishing his plate.

"They actually think it's great you choose this place to rest and refuel on your patrols." Her parents loved Chat, which had always rubbed her the wrong way, specially when they didn't seem as warm towards Luka. They were perfectly pleasant, but they never baked him a heart shaped souffle. Luka...it still hurt...her parents little 'present' next to the dinner plates made her wonder.

"If you don't mind me asking? Why do you come here so often Chat? Ladybug doesn't do patrols." Marinette never dared ask before fearing he would take it the wrong way and stop showing up, but today felt like a good day to try and find out.

"How do you know that?" Chat answered without looking up from his plate.

"Um...it's on the Ladyblog, they know all your schedules." Marinette quickly improvised.

"Oh right...It's just, I usually eat dinner by myself at home, and it's usually something overly healthy that tastes like cardboard." He said sullenly still not looking up.

"I didn't peg you for a health nut." Marinette said surprised.

"I'm not. I guess I just miss family dinners, talking with others while I eat delicious food made with love, like this. But if I'm overstaying my welcome just say the word." He looked up almost fearing the answer.

"Not at all, knowing that, I'll fix you a plate every night in case you want to show up." Marinette said smiling earnestly.

"Thanks Princess. Your parents won't mind that I keep their beautiful daughter chit chatting all night?" He said leaving his finished plate back on the tray and taking a sip of water.

Marinette was now used to him calling her beautiful and all sorts of other pet names. But she blushed remembering her parents' note.

"To be honest, I'm pretty sure they still want you as an in-law. They like you way more than they liked my ex."

Chat turned and spat out his water.

"Easy Kitty." Marinette laughed.

"You broke up with Luka?!" Normally the in-law comment would be the spit worthy one, but for some reason his heart sped up when heard the ex part.

"Yeah." Marinette said looking down sadly.

"Are you okay?" He reached for her hand which she gladly gave it.

"Not really, but I had to do it." She smiled sadly at him.

"Why?" He said genuinely confused rubbing the back of his hand soothingly.

"It wasn't fair for him, I'm in love with someone else. I thought Luka could help me get over him, but it didn't work. I just can't seem to get over Adrien." She said still holding his hand looking off into the distance.

"Adrien Agreste?!" Chat almost screeched pulling away suddenly. "How come you never mentioned this to me before?"

"I...I was embarrassed, and trying to forget him." Marinette stuttered surprised at his reaction.

"Why him? Because he's a model?" Chat tried to ask recomposing himself.

"No. I actually hated him the first time we met. I thought he was just going to be a spoiled, self centered, malicious brat. But he's not, he's a sweet, caring, shy guy who just tries way to hard to please everyone around him. For the longest time I couldn't even speak to him without turning into a bumbling mess, and by the time I was able to hold a conversation with him, he got a girlfriend." She said softly fiddling with a pea on her plate.

"Kagami." Chat said involuntarily.

Marinette's head shot up. "Aren't you well versed in celebrity gossip?"

"Well...it was all over the news." Chat said scratching the back of his head nervously.

"The worse part is I really like Kagami, I just really hope they are both happy." Marinette said with her head down again.

Chat sighed deeply. "It's complicated."

Marinette's head shot up again. "Oh Chat! I'm so sorry! I'm oversharing. How have you been? How are things with your girlfriend?" She asked forcing a smile.

"We're on a break, I don't think it's working out either." Chat said looking down at his empty plate.

"On a break?" Marinette asked confused.

Chat looked at her and started scratching the back of his head again. "Yeah, I tried breaking up with her, but she said no."

"What?"

Chat looked down again. "She basically told me we should discreetly see other people and then reassess our relationship."

"What?" Marinette was seriously confused now but felt a little flutter in her stomach.

"It's complicated, our families are very involved in our relationship." Chat said pinching the bridge of his nose exasperated.

"So, I guess you are looking forward to flirting with Ladybug again." She tried saying to cheer him up.

"Not really, it wouldn't be fair of me, she has a boyfriend now, even thou I'm still madly in love with milady I wouldn't want to jeopardize her happiness. Like you said I just really hope she's happy." He said looking at the horizon.

"She's not." Marinette blurted out.

"What? How would you know?" Chat's head snapped back to Marinette.

Marinette jumped out of her seat waving her hands. "Um because..." Her mind went blank, she was so tired of all the lies. She suddenly looked down, sight deeply and said: "Ugh forget it, I can't do this anymore. I'm making the rules now. It's insane, we know the identities of every other Miraculous user but ourselves. I trust you Chat. Tikki, spots on."

Tikki came out of her hiding spot and transformed her in front of a wide eyed Chat who also jumped out of his seat.

"Milady!" He gasped.

"There! That's my secret! I'm so sorry I've hurt you for so long. It's me, that's why you always run into me right after a fight. I'm sorry Chat, I'm Ladybug. Whoo that feels good to finally say out loud." She slowly walked towards her partner as she spoke, her hand stretched out slightly in case he wanted to check that she wasn't an illusion.

Chat stretched his hand and walked forward to touch hers, confirming she was really there. He slowly entwined his fingers with hers looking at her hand intently before looking up at her again. "I assume you used the fox Miraculous when I saw you give yourself the mouse Miraculous." He asked with a grin.

"Yeah, I suspected you were getting close to finding my identity." Marinette said blushing that he got it so quickly but didn't let his hand go.

"I was." Chat gave a long step forward closing the distance between them and pulled her slowly towards him by her waist. He looked at her intensely obviously ready to kiss her. Marianette felt her resistance waver she really loved Adrien, but it was never going to happen. She loved Chat, he was her partner and her best friend for years now, she owed it to herself to give him a chance.

She heard: "Plagg claws in."

The green light surrounding his transformation made her refocus, but she never expected her knee-jerk reaction to push him away suddenly at seeing his civilian form. "ADRIEN!?" She screamed.

He fell on his bottom chuckling. "It's me, Princess, it's always been me." Adrien Agreste softly said smiling at her, slowly standing back up.

"But I've seen you next to Chat Noir." Marinette said still shocked.

"That was Wayhem with the helmet." Adrien smiled and scratched the back of his head.

How could she had not noticed his mannerisms! It WAS him!

"I'm so stupid!" She blushed and covered her face with both her hands.

"We both were." He said placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I've been rejecting you all these years, because of yourself!? Ugh!" She dropped her hands to her sides and looked down red and embarrassed.

"Marinette!"

"What!?" She looked up at Adrien's face, he looked so happy.

"I have kissed you twice that I know of without any memory of it. With your permission milady I would like to finally change that." He said with his characteristic Chat Noir grin.

Marinette smiled warmly before saying: "Tikki spots off. Take Plagg to the bakery, there's cheese in the fridge." The little kwami giggled and quickly flew down through the roof with a slightly annoyed looking Plagg in tow.

Marinette smiled and nodded, she felt an odd sense of deja vu as Adrien took her by the waist again and closed the distance between them once more.

The second their lips touched everything clicked, all those years of tension spilled like a waterfall. Her hands quickly entangled themselves in his soft blond locks, pulling him closer savoring the lips she had fantasized about for almost 5 years of her life. Things quickly got heated up and before they knew it they found themselves making out passionately on her deck chair. Marinette straddled Adrien as her hands found themselves trying to unbuckle his belt. He quickly reacted rolling her over and pinning her underneath him taking her hands in his and kissing her neck before speaking.

"Marinette...we have to stop...I want you too much but I don't have any protection on me." Adrien said huskily in her ear.

Marinette smiled and pulled her hands free; she then softly pulled his face down to hers. "Remember how I said I think my parents wanted us to end up together?" She reached underneath the deck chair and pulled out a small cardboard box from underneath handing it to him. "They left me this box next to your dinner plate."

Adrien sat up on the chair and opened the box. Inside there was a note, a box of condoms and a blindfold. The note read: Marinette, you are a young woman now, we trust you completely. From now on we will be sleeping with earplugs every night, we have no doubt you will make the right choice when it comes to a partner. Love mom and dad.

Marinette said flushed and breathlessly. "I guess they thought you could help me get over my break-up."

"God, I love your parents."


End file.
